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Kritesh
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Look at the non-underlined part of the sentence. It's uses 'has' and therefore, the use of had been is incorrect. Statement choice with Present perfect verb tense is the right one. Also 'during' is correctly compared to 'any other time' in option C.

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I was confused between B and C. I thought B was correct because it said HAD which goes with LAST YEAR. I thought C, which said HAVE means it is still happening which is wrong.

I would appreciate any clarification on this.
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Why not E? are involved implies even current students are involved.
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Quote:
A new study has found that college students had been more involved in on-campus political activities during the last few years than at any time in the past two decades.

A. had been more involved in on-campus political activities during the last few years than at any time
Use of HAD is incorrect as there are no two events that follow a sequence in the past. "at any time" is incorrect as "any time" also includes this time as well, thus "at any other time" is correct. It is like saying "Rahul is the tallest boy than any boy in the class" which is wrong. the correct sentence will be: "Rahul is the tallest boy than any other boy in the class"

B. had been more involved in on-campus political activities during the last few years than at any other time
use of HAD is incorrect as explained in A

C. have been more involved in on-campus political activities during the last few years than at any other time
Have been is correctly used. Moreover "any other time" is correct

D. have been more involved in on-campus political activities during the last few years than at any time
at any time is wrong

E. are more involved in on-campus political activities during the last few years as compared to any other time
"more" takes "than". Here "more...as compared to" use is incorrect idiomatically
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can anyone help me to understand the difference between "at any other time" and "at any time" and the implications of the same in the sentence?
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mdsaddamforgmat
can anyone help me to understand the difference between "at any other time" and "at any time" and the implications of the same in the sentence?
"At anytime" means any time period including the time of the study
"any other time" : means time period except the time referenced in the study which conveys the intended meaning
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A new study has found that college students had been more involved in on-campus political activities during the last few years than at any time in the past two decades.

Comparison is between political activities of college students in the last few years and any other time in the past few decades

Here the usage of any other depicts the years other than the one's talked earlier. SO any other is very important in the comparison.
A & D out.
Moreover here the comparison is between the activities in the fast few years and the years in past decades.
No need for the had been to depict the sequencing of events.
Have been is more precise here as PRESENT PERFECT is used to show actions of recent past. Here the last few years are the years of the recent past hence usage of HAVE BEEN is absolutely correct

A. had been more involved in on-campus political activities during the last few years than at any time
B. had been more involved in on-campus political activities during the last few years than at any other time
C. have been more involved in on-campus political activities during the last few years than at any other time
CORRECT

D. have been more involved in on-campus political activities during the last few years than at any time
E. are more involved in on-campus political activities during the last few years as compared to any other time.
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KAPLAN OFFICIAL EXPLANATION



Step 1: Read the Original Sentence Carefully, Looking for Errors
This sentence contains an underlined verb, so that’s where we’ll start our investigation. There is no
difference between the singular and plural forms of “had been,” so there is no subject-verb agreement
error. However, the verb tense does not match the meaning of the sentence. The past perfect
tense, indicated by the use of the helping verb “had,” is only appropriate when there are two past
events, with one having occurred before the other. In that situation, the past perfect would be used
for the earlier of the two events. In the underlined clause of this sentence, though, there is only a
single, continuous action—involvement in on-campus political activities. So there should be no use
of the past perfect, and the use of the word “had” needs to be corrected.

Step 2: Scan and Group the Answer Choices
(A) and (B) retain the verb “had been involved.” (C) and (D) both use “have been involved,” while
(E) uses “are involved.”

Step 3: Eliminate Choices Until Only One Remains
We know that “had been involved” is an incorrect verb tense, so we can eliminate (A) and (B).
Choice (E) uses the present tense, but the action being described has been happening “during the
last few years,” so we have another inappropriate tense and can eliminate (E) as well. That leaves
(C) and (D). Both use the correct tense, the present perfect, to describe an action that occurred in
the past over the course of several years. The only difference between them is that (C) adds the word
“other” to the phrase “at any time,” while (D) does not. We’ll need to look carefully at the intended
meaning of the original sentence to see which is correct. The “last few years” are included in the
“past two decades,” so the author of the sentence is really trying to compare the “last few years” to
any “other” time during the past two decades. (C) adds this subtle but proper comparative adjective
and is therefore the correct answer.

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What is the error in E?
why we cant use are involved in this context?
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